Workers in Vidalia, Louisiana, USA began producing anodes for lithium batteries for electric cars in February, using graphite from Balama, Cabo Delgado, mined by Australian company Syrah. In the same month, Syrah agreed a deal to produce identical anodes in Teesside Freeport in the northeast of England.
Both projects are subsidised by the host government. The Freeport has generous tax and customs exemptions; the US is giving the Vidalia project a $220 mn grant, a $102 mn loan, and big tax abatements, as well as paying 6% of its wage bill.
Making anodes is not complicated and the whole project could have been done in Mozambique, with good jobs and training. Indeed, just as the whole Vidalia factory design is being copied in Teesside, it could also have been copied in Montepuez or Nacala. But Frelimo presidential candidate Daniel Chapo, speaking on 10 June in Inhambane where he is governor, was more realistic. He said “for work such as gardening, or cleaning offices, no specialization is required. It should be local companies that do these jobs, so that the money stays in the local communities, in small and medium enterprises, particularly the enterprises of our young people”.
This has led to a look back to the US moonshot. US President John F Kennedy in 1961 said the US would land a man on the moon and bring him back safely before the end of decade, which was done successfully in July 1969. The moonshot cost more than $200bn in today's money, and much went to industry and universities to develop the technology
The Kennedy moonshot was at the height of the Cold War, when spending huge amounts of government money to support domestic industry was OK to compete with the communists. With no enemy, sensible economic policies were replaced with neoliberalism for three decades. But with a new cold war and China as the enemy, suddenly subsidies to catch up are back in fashion.
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